LUKOIL to involve anti-trust body in UC RUSAL case

SOUTH KHYLCHUYU, Russia (Reuters) - LUKOIL will ask Russian anti-trust authorities to intervene in a dispute with aluminium firm United Company RUSAL over oil coke supplies, the oil company's vice-president said on Thursday. UC RUSAL, controlled by billionaire Oleg Deripaska, filed a lawsuit against LUKOIL this month for an alleged breach of a long-term contract to supply the raw material to the company's Siberian smelters. LUKOIL Vice-President Valery Subbotin said his company, Russia's second-largest oil firm, would appeal to the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) in an attempt to get UC RUSAL to pay higher prices for oil coke. "We will turn to FAS (the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service) in order to oblige RUSAL to pay market price," he told reporters. "Coke prices have changed three times. We suggested that they reconsider the price. They refused," he said during a trip to one of the company's Arctic oil fields. The anti-trust body has become an important market regulator in Russia, ruling this month that New York-listed miner Mechel must cut the price at which it sells coal to domestic steel makers following Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's attack on the firm. UC RUSAL, the world's largest aluminium producer, said on August 13 oil coke shipments from LUKOIL had almost halved since April and accused the firm of cutting shipments in violation of a supply contract signed in 2006 that runs until April 2011. The company said in a statement on Thursday it would insist on the prices agreed in the contract. "A court has accepted the lawsuit on forcing LUKOIL to honour the agreed obligations and hearings are due in the nearest future," UC RUSAL said. Aluminium production appears not to be affected, as UC RUSAL has said previously it was buying replacement oil coke from China and Azerbaijan. LUKOIL's Subbotin alleged the firm was importing oil coke at $600 per tonne and buying it from LUKOIL at $220 per tonne. UC RUSAL, the world's largest aluminium smelter, has said it is incurring additional expenses due to its having to buy the raw material elsewhere. Oil coke is used in the production of anodes and anode paste in UC RUSAL's smelters. The aluminium firm says it believes it is missing over 35,000 tonnes of oil coke that LUKOIL was contracted to deliver since April 2008.